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The Jaguars’ two games against the Tennessee Titans this season came down to two key statistics.

In the first game, they held the Titans to 83 rushing yards and won 29-27 with the help of four turnovers and a safety.

In the rematch Sunday, the Titans had 182 rushing yards and turned the ball over only once to beat the Jaguars 20-16.

The Jaguars held the Titans to 17 rushing yards in the first quarter and 68 in the first half to take a 13-6 lead.

And the Titans came out passing in the third quarter, throwing twice on the first three plays of their first series (the second one was intercepted to set up a field goal that gave the Jaguars a 16-6 lead) and on their first three plays of their second series.

But then with a first down on their 42, the Titans decided to test the Jaguars’ run defense.

The Jaguars flunked the test.

The Titans ran the ball on eight consecutive plays to score a touchdown that cut the deficit to 16-13.

On their next series, they ran on six of their eight plays — one a scramble by Ryan Fitzpatrick for a first down on fourth-and-2 — before Nate Washington got open deep and hauled in a 30-yard touchdown pass to give the Titans a 20-16 lead that stood up for the victory.

And they ran the ball to protect the lead in the fourth quarter as Chris Johnson darted for four yards on third-and-4 at the Tennessee 45 as he spun around to make the first down by inches with 3:01 left. The Jaguars challenged the first down ruling and lost it.

The Titans ran a total of 44 times for 182 yards with the 1-2 punch of Shonn Greene and Johnson.

“They did a good job running the ball against us.” Jaguars coach Gus Bradley said. “When they have 44 carries, that tells you they’re really committed to the run, and they feel they have confidence in running the ball and that’s what we don’t want to have a team generate.’’

Greene had 91 yards in 19 carries, including a 29-yard run. Johnson added 90 yards in 22 carries, including a 12-yarder.

In the first game against the Titans on Nov. 10, the Jaguars held Johnson to 30 yards in 12 carries and Greene to 22 yards in nine carries.

That started a streak after the bye when the Jaguars didn’t allow a team to rush for 100 yards for five games and won four of them.

But the last two weeks, the run defense became porous. Last week, the Bills ran for 198 yards and beat the Jaguars 27-20.

One of the differences against the Titans was that the Jaguars defense was ravaged by injuries. They were missing defensive tackle Roy Miller, both outside linebackers (Russell Allen and Geno Hayes), and cornerback Dwayne Gratz and backup tackle Brandon Deaderick were lost during the game.

On the drive when the Titans ran eight plays in a row, J.T. Thomas was out being treated for dehydration, John Lotulelei switched from strong-side linebacker to weak-side linebacker, and rookie LaRoy Reynolds came in at strong-side.

“It was disappointing,’’ Lotulelei said. “Maybe I should have prepared more for plays at will [weakside linebacker].’’

Lotulelei, an undrafted rookie free agent claimed off waivers by the Jaguars on Oct. 3, was making his second start. Thomas, a 2011 sixth-round draft pick claimed off waivers by the Jaguars on Sept. 1, was making his first start.

“We don’t make excuses,’’ defensive end Jason Babin said. “We made some mistakes, and they capitalized on the mistakes.’’

“I think they had a pretty good scheme on how they wanted to control the front and run to our nose guard side,” Jaguars defensive tackle Sen’Derrick Marks said, “We got to figure out exactly what it was and try to come back next week stronger [against Indianapolis] to finish the season out.’’